In a Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign to support student scholarships, IU South Bend alumni joined the Battle of the Decades, where our future Titans are the real winners. Generous and competitive spirited alumni joined the battle to see which of our five decades of graduates could raise the most money, and which decade could gain the highest percentage of participation.
This year our first decade, 1967-76 takes the win in both categories by bringing the highest percentage of graduates together to raise $1,320 for our Titans. Congratulations to our first decade of alumni from IU South Bend! You have demonstrated your outstanding commitment to the success of our students.
The Battle of the Decades raised $17,000 through donations from alumni and friends of the university, as well as generous underwriting gifts from our community underwriters. Thank you to 1st Source Bank, Crowe, Kem Krest, Indiana University South Bend, and Pfeifer Morgan & Stesiak, for sharing our commitment to educating the community in which we live, work, and play!
Highlights of this year’s campaign include a socially distanced game show presented in tribute to Alex Trebek and Jeopardy. Chancellor Susan Elrod hosted the game show as decade captains shared their knowledge of IU South Bend trivia over Zoom. We thank our fearless captains who lead their decades into battle:
- 1967-76, John Voorde, BS ’69
- 1977-86, Christine Pochert Ringle, MSBA ’86
- 1987-96, Darrel Sanders, MS ’92
- 1997-06, Mary Beth Ryan, BGS ’99
- 2007-20, Félix Marquez, BS ’13
In the three years since the battle began, alumni and friends have raised more than $53,800 to benefit our talented Titan scholars. These Alumni Scholarship Program funds support scholarships awarded to undergraduate and graduate students, both incoming and returning, for academic merit as well as social identity. This scholarship program provided 14 awards for nearly $20,000 of student support in the 2020-21 academic year. Natalie Fox, a recipient of the IU South Bend Alumni Honors Scholarship shared these words of thanks:
I am only the second person in my family to go to college, and with this scholarship I am able to continue my college path and end up being the second person in my family to receive a college degree with my name on it, signifying all of the hard work I have completed. The support of the IU South Bend alumni means the world not only to me, but to the other students who have received this scholarship. With the alumni's support in the form of donations, myself and several other students are able to receive a higher education and create a successful pathway for the rest of our lives that might not have been an option before. I personally would like to express my gratitude to the alumni donors for providing me with this opportunity and assisting me in making my dream of becoming a dentist one-day come true.
That’s just one account of the impact provided through the generosity of our fantastic Titan alumni. Thank you to all of our participants for their enthusiasm and support of Titan scholars! We look forward to the next competition to see who is fired up and ready to make a difference in the education of our future alumni.
